9" x 12", oil on canvas

I loved the pattern the light made on the rhythmic facades marching up the hill, and I was fascinated by the reflected light on the cobblestone. The whole scene is mysterious to me - what is going on behind those still planes, underneath the trees leaning over the garden walls?

Kyoto streetscape

Oil on linen panel, 12"x 12"

This streetscape caught my attention. Initially, it was the glowing umbrella, but then it became the blaring sunlight, the figures in the street, and the beautiful light on the paving. It was fun to pick out the red elements in the various parts of the landscape.

Lilies

9" x 12" oil on panel

This is the first in a series that I have been working on for a few weeks. I keep working on them some more, and liking parts of them. I have been learning a lot. But they don't really seem to finish, as much as I would like them to. It is a function of needing to paint more, and needing to spend more time painting.
However, I will post them this week, and see what they look like online. Hope you like them!

Ice Fan

11"x 14" oil on linen panel

A playful moment captured in a spontaneous painting. I think that the limited complementary palette really helps juxtapose the playful character with the cold season. Soon this will all be a memory!

11x14 Oil on linen panel

A winter beach and cliff walk at Beavertail Light, on the southern end of Jamestown, RI. The pattern of dark and light as the waves moved towards shore and the green/ orange range of colors caught me eye. Snow in the shadows reminds me that it is still winter. This was a studio painting. I tried to go out yesterday to paint, and it looks like spring, but is still cold enough to soak into my bones. Soon....

Winter View

oil on linen panel - 8" x 16"

This painting was done from a cropped snapshot. I loved the shapes of the hills, the contrast-y colors, and the long vista. I used a limited palette of cad red light, ultramarine, and yellow. Usually I would have used ochers and siennas from the the tube, but this palette pushed me to explore colors more than usual, and rewarded me for the effort!

Watch Hill Winter Morning II

I have been thinking about this painting since I last posted, and have not gotten it out of my head yet. I have changed my usual order of layout, so that you can compare it to the previous entry.
Paintings are always kept out in the studio for studying. In this one, I have kept darkening the forground and adding more layers to the sky.
I have tweaked the colors of the photo in GIMP, but still have more cobalt hue in the foreground that in the actual picture. The rest of the picture is pretty accurate. (It is always a temptation to get the photo as good as it can be as its own image, but I am sticking to the closest I can get to the actual image.
I am doing well, despite the lack of posting. We are the host parents for an international student, and that has thrown my usual routines all awry.

Oil on linen 9" x 12"

Watch Hill Winter Morning

oil on linen panel 9" x 12"

This painting is a value study and a painting focused on the sky. The darker ground tones helps the sky sing in comparison. Everything is frozen tight, and yet the light dances through the cold space. There is a quality of expectation and an exhilaration at the same time.
In class, we all put our work up for a crit period at the end, and one of the many valuable parts of that process is standing back from the painting and looking at it with a detached eye. Posting items on this blog is another way to acheive that viewpoint. There is a possibility that I will repaint the snow even darker. Usually I look at a painting for a while so that I can see it before I make a decision like that.

Ueno Park August

oil on linen panel 24" x 9.5"

This is the painting that I have been working on for the past few weeks, the blog silencing painting for the member show at the Providence Art Club. I wanted to capture the fabulous feeling of being in the cool shade on a very hot day in Tokyo. I have simplified the background buildings, and used the horizontal composition to emphasize the feeling of being under the canopy of beautiful trees. The people in the painting move back through the space.
I am also glad that it is done.
Right now, a little of that heat would be welcome in RI.

Vinyard Winter

oil on canvas panel 8" x 16"

I have been away over the weekend, and painting has taken the backseat to family. That is as it should be, and yet when I came back, I have been working all night on my Member Show entry at the Providence Art Club, and on finishing this painting so that I could put something up on this blog. This is from a photo that is a couple of years old, and the scene had caught my eye from the beginning. I have been working on it over time, looking at the best use values and color to enhance the scene. Right now this is as far as I have been able to take it.
I wanted to show how resolutely the house faces the weather from the open ocean. The low sunlight on the face of the house picks up the strength of the manmade structure. It is nestled in the hills, but clearly taller than the windswept horizontal landscape around it. We can all be brave this way, even as we are worn by time and other storms.
The entry is a longer painting for me, as I am used to smaller formats. This may be a bad week for posting, as deadlines loom...

Angel Window - Grand Canyon

8" x 10" oil paint on canvas panel

This is a painting from 2 years ago done from a sketch during a visit to the Grand Canyon. I pulled it out from the "archives" a few days ago thinking that it was not a total wash. I wish that I had taken a picture of it before I "looked" at it with a brush last night. I did so little, adding a few of the things that I had learned to pay attention to.
The first thing I did was to rub it down with a 50/50 mixture of Liquin and Mineral spirits. That removed dust, and improved the finish texture on the paint surface itself. I recently learned what an important quality that becomes for a painting. I brightened the sky, and added a bit of color where I previously had white rocks facing the sky. There had been two trees on top of the arch in the photo, but I eliminated one to strengthen the composition. A few touches to soften the horizon, a few more blue shadows, a sharper edge to the right of the Angel Window, and now I am very happy with the painting.
It is funny to have such a small painting of such a large area, almost unimaginable.
It is also amusing to realize how close I had been before, and did not have the experience to finish it.
I have been working on a larger painting from Japan for the Member's Exhibit at the Providence Art Club in a few weeks, and have less to show right now on the blog.

Twilight

9" x 12" oil on linen

This is the last of the three evening paintings that I have worked on. The other two were posted on December 10th and 11th, but this one resisted being finished. I had to keep adjusting the values to see how to get the effect of the low fall evening light. It has been a process of gradually darkening and warming, adding layers of paint. Paintings seem to have their own personalities, even done in batches. My favorite isn't always the one done first or the easiest. And sometimes, there is one done that just is a throwaway. Or really, a paint over.

Learning to look at the values is a constant learning experience for me. Stan Moeller quotes watercolorist Charles Reid , "Color gets all the credit, but values do all the work. ..."

Summer Shadows

Oil on linen panel 9" x 12"

This is a seascape from Little Compton RI. I loved the effect of the long shadows illuminating the land in stripes, and the house hiding from the wind in the evergreens. I have painted at this location often, but feel that this is one of the most successful images.
I am looking forward to painting more and posting more in the New Year. I have made strides forward this year in making my art more public. I did my first outdoor show in Malden Bridge NY this summer, and started this blog to document what I have been up to. My next effort will be to make a card for myself as an artist, and to add more drawing to my daily routine. Finally, I will keep hoping that someone will start commenting on the blog!
Focus on the positive things that we have around us: family, friends, and health! Keep enjoyment up front in the New Year. My best to you, Mary

Sunflowers and Fog

oil on linen panel 14" x 18"

My latest offering is completely off season, but I decided that I would try it the other day. I took a small painting of Monhegan that I had done previously and tried it on a larger canvas. I think it is still 75% done, but I am offering a blog of it as a Christmas present for people who would like to remember warmer times. I am also curious to look at it online myself.
Most of the other paintings I have done lately have not been successful enough to post. I blame it on this silly cold, but as long as I keep painting, I am fine. I have long said that if I am not willing to do paintings that I don't end up liking, that I will not grow as an artist. Of course, that needs to be coupled with a willingness to try keeping an open mind and doing things in different ways as well. What is the definition of insanity? Trying to get different results from doing things the same way.
Do have a wonderful Christmas, and if you are a painter, keep painting!

Temple Flags

oil on linen panel 12" x12"

A new painting done by an image sent to me from a fall expedition to Kyoto. I love looking at the flags, as I can feel the brisk breeze and the temple routine, playing against each other.

Intermission

I spent the weekend in a combination of busy and sick that has brought me to a halt, but I decided that I would post anyways. It seems best to give myself a few days of permission to lighten up, to get used to the clock change, to let the paint dry. But there are a lot of paintings that I could be posting, even if they are not fresh off the easel.
So maybe this will be a cartoon or a newsreel between full features.
Let's spin the wheel and see what I find.....

Temple Gate 8" x 10" oil on linen panel

This is a painting that I did from a series on Japanese landscapes last fall. I love the mystery beyond the gate, like an Eden of wonderful specimens. The clouds hover above the gates, free, and the tree has grown beyond them. The gate is detailed, heavy, and reflects light into the shadows. It makes me happy to look at again, and that is a good feeling tonight.
I hope that anyone finding this has their own temple gate to look through.

Progress of a painting

This was painted on Wednesday morning at my painting class from a photo I took at Beavertail Park in Jamestown on October 20th. We all painted and then the teacher had us comment on our own paintings. That was an interesting twist! I had to leave early so that I did not hear all of the critiques, but the ones I heard were pretty negative and process oriented. When it came to be my turn, in my head I tried to buck the trend, and had a difficult time. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the sense of light.

9" x 12" oil on panel

Tony did suggest that I look again at the light in the upper left corner, and I noticed that I wanted the light rocks to darken slightly as they moved back in space. Sometimes I will take a picture and try those kinds of things roughly to see what effect it might have. The manipulated photo below is the end result of some exploration tonight. After this, I will try making the changes that I did like in paint.

9" x 12" oil on panel, after Photoshop

Over time, I have gotten a little better about seeing what changes a painting might need. It used to take me months. One thing that I love during class is putting the paintings together at the end. I always see new things and a better overall idea of the painting when I look at it objectively (in a group, 12 feet away). It never fails.

Vermont Garage

8" x10" oil on canvas

This scene struck me when we were in Vermont over Columbus Day weekend. The colors were so strong that they filled the shadows. This garage was camoflaged by the tree shadows. The whole scene was glowing. The bits of sky popped out the orange. I have seen this building over and over, but this time it was an inspiration to try to set down.

Fog

oil on linen/panel 11" x14"

This painting was done after my return from Monhegan, based on a small field sketch. I was attracted by the layers of trees and other objects, and by the cool silvery glow of the light over the water. The light gets warmer and clearer as it gets closer to the viewer. This is an example of a painting I am still looking at, and may refine more before I consider it done.

Farewell Dock

8" x 16" oil on panel

This was painted the morning that I was leaving Monhegan Island this September. The light in the sky plays against the dark water and general moodiness. It echoed how I was feeling about connecting to the wider world.